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R. BUTTON. MACHINE POR'GRINDING MGWER` KNIVES. Y No. 503,127. PatentedAug. l5, 189.3.

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Rf BUTTON. v MACHINE POR GRINDING MOWER KNIVES. Nm 503,127. ,PatentedAug'. l5', 1893.

UNITED TATES RUFUS DUTTON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MACHINE FOR GRINDING MOWER-KNIVES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 503,127, dated August15, 1893.

Application iiled January 17, 1891. Serial Nn. 378.337. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, RUFUs DUTTON, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of New York, in the county of New York, State of New York,haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Machines forGrinding Mower-Knives, of -which the following is a specication.

My invention relates to improvements in that class of machines forgrinding mower knives, which use a rectangular faced grinding wheel,wherein the knife is held during grinding in a substantially verticalposition, and wherein the grinding wheel oscillateslaterally, so that atits extreme lateral positions the face of the grinding wheel is at anangle suitable to grind the beveled edges of the mower knife sections;and the present application relates particularly to modifications overthe machines shown in my application for Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, filed December 26, 1890, Serial No. 374,943, in that saidapplication for patent the swiveling pivot is shown in front of theknife clamp, so that the knife clamp is between the said pivot and thegrinding wheel, and the said machine is further so organized that thegrinding wheel grinds in succession the two opposite edges of the sameknife section. The'present application shows a machine diderentlyorganized and which grinds the knife sections in a radically differentmanner. That is, to say, the pivot is now placed vbehind the grindingwheel, so that the said grinding wheel is between the pivot and theknife clamp, andthe machine is so organized that the grinding wheel willgrind in succession the opposite edges of every other knife section, butone. Thus if when the grinding wheel is at its extreme right-handposition, the left edge of its grinding face will be in position tobegin grinding the left beveled edge of a knife section. Then when thegrinding wheel arm is oscillated to the extreme left-hand position theright hand edge of the face of the wheel will be in the position togrind the right-hand beveled edge of the next knife section but one onthe left of the knife section whose edge was first ground. Thus themachine is so 0rganized that the grinding wheel passes by or skips oneknife section. In order to effect this the swiveling pivot is placed asfar as possible from the grinding face of the wheel; that is, as stated,entirely behind the grinding wheel, and thus the radial distance fromthe pivot to the said grinding face is so great, that the chord of thearc through which the face of the grinding wheel oscillates is longerthan the breadth of aknife section measured parallel to the knife clampframe, and I prefer to so organize the machine that the said chord shallbe longer than the said breadth of a knife section by the width of thegrinding face of the wheel. Now, l have ascertained that the machinewill fulfill this condition when the swiveling pivot is placed at theintersection of the two perpendiculars drawn from the lines of theopposite beveled edge of a knife section and of the next knife sectionbut one, and from points on said lines which are each distant outwardlyfrom said beveled edges a distance equal to one-half the width of the'grinding face of the wheel (or what is the same thing, if the wheel bethroughout of equal thickness, the thickness of the said wheel); Asbefore said, this organization secures a long radius for theoscillations of the grinding wheel, and thereby a simple means isprovided for grinding knives with dierently beveled edges on the samemachine. For it is evident that when the grinding wheel is at itsextreme lateral positions it will grind bevels at the greatestinclination with the plane of the knife but that at any points betweenthese extreme limits it will grind Hatter bevels. Consequently it isonly necessary to fix a knife section in the knife clamp so that thegrinding wheel will grind the section when the wheel is between itsextreme lateral positions, in order to grind flatter bevels, and thisflatness may be varied, according to the position in which the knife isset in the clamp.

The present application differs again from the prior applicationhereinbefore referred to in the means for reciprocating and oscillatingthe grinding wheel, and for reciprocating the k'nife clamp. For thefirst purpose l herein substitute a simple handle on the front end ofthe wheel arm, in place of the lever and link of the said application,and for the second purpose I now employ a thumb lever, which is pivotedon the handle in combination with a flexible connection between thethumb lever and the knife clamp. Further- IOO more,l now provide meansforsupporting the grinding wheel above the water in the trough when thesaid wheel is in a lateral position suitable for beginning grinding.

Referring now to the drawings which accompany the specification, Figurel is a side elevation of the machine, with the grinding wheel at itslowest position. Fig. 2 is also a side elevation opposite to Fig. l,showing the gears, and the wheel lifted to a height suitable forbeginning grinding. Fig. 3 is a top view showing the wheel at itsextreme right hand position ready for grinding the left hand edge of aknife section. Fig. Llis a View of the knife clamp end of the machine,showing a knife in the clamps, and the grinding wheel at its extremeright hand position. Fig. 4, is a diagram showing how the location ofthe swiveling pivot is determined. Fig. 5 is a view of the crank end ofthe machine. Fig. G is an enlarged elevation of the wheel frame and thebase, showing the construction of the swiveling pivot, and also the studfor the crank gear, and the support for the wheel arm. Fig. 7 is asimilarly enlarged view of the base from below, showing the stops whichlimit the oscillation of the wheel arm. Fig. S is a detail of thedevices for throwing the knife clamp toward and from the grinding-wheel,said wheel however not being shown in the figure.

The grinding wheel, A, is a solid wheel of any suitable grindingmaterial, and is preferably fixed on a rotatable shaft B, in anysuitable manner. In Figs. l, 2, and 3, this shaft B, is shown supportedby a wheel arm, O, which is formed as a hood, c, over the wheel, A, andhas side pieces or arms, c c2 which descend to either side of the wheel,A, and in which are formed bearings for the shaft, B. The wheel arm, C,extends some distance to the rear of the wheel, A, or to the sideopposite to the knife-clamp, and is hinged by a hinge, d, to a wheelframe D. The hinge, d, is parallel to the shaft, B, so that the wheelarm, C, with the wheel A can reciprocate in a plane perpendicular tosaid shaft, B, and the said wheel frame, D, is swiveled upon abase D ofthe machine by a pivot E. This pivot E, is very efficiently constructedof a bolt E, which is passed through a true cylindrical hole in thewheel frame D,and a corresponding hole in the base D, and is held inplace by a nut, e. The construction of the pivot, E, is very clearlyshown in Figs. 1, 5 and 6. The pivot, E, is preferably placed in theperpendicular plane which passes through the center of the face of thewheel, A, and the direction of the pivot, E, is perpendicular to theshaft, B, but its position is behind and altogether outside of theperiphery of the grinding wheel, A, so that if the pivot, E, wereprolonged it would not intersect any part of the periphery of the saidgrinding wheel, A, but would pass some distance to the rear thereof;and, as hereinbefore stated, the said pivot, E, is positioned at theintersection of the perpendicnlars drawn from the lines of the oppositebeveled edges of a knife section and of the next knife section but one,and from points on said lines which are each distant outwardly from thesaid beveled edges a distance equal to one-half the width of the face ofthe grinding wheel, A. The amount of lateral oscillation of the wheelarm, C, about the said pivot, E, is limited by the lug d3, which issecured to the wheel frame, D, and moves laterally in a circular recess,d, which is formed on the base D. The shoul ders, of the said recess,d4, limit the oscillation of the lug, d3, and thereby the oscillationsof the wheel arm, C. In the organization of the machine the said recess,d4, is so proportioned that the lug, d3,oscilla tes through such an arc,that the chord of the corresponding are of oscillation of the face ofthe grinding wheel, A, is greater than the breadth of a knife sectionmeasured parallel to the knife clamp frame by the width of the face ofsaid grinding wheel, A.

It is a very convenient organization of the machine, to cast the base, Dintegral with a water-trough, F, letting said water-trough F, form thebed of the machine, and providing the said trough, F, with ears, f, f,which are pierced with holes forbolts to secure the grinding machine inany suitable support. The water-trough, F, base D', wheel frame, D,hinge, cl, and arm, c, are also carefully organized with reference tothe diameter of the wheel, A, and the position of the knife section, M,when placed ready for grinding, so that when the wheel is at rest, itmaybe lowered below the water-level in the trough, F, as indicated inFig. l, and when the Wheel is raised to the position for beginninggrinding, at the bottom of the V-notch between two knife sections, as inFig. 4, the wheel, A, will be lifted above the water-level in thetrough, F, as indicated in Fig. 2. Thus before grinding, the wheel, A,is revolved a few times slowly in the water in trough, F, to thoroughlywet its grinding surface, and then the wheel, A, is lifted above thewater-level in the said trough and the grinding is begun. In this waysplashing is avoided, and the wheel will absorb water enough to grindseveral knife edges with one wetting. The aforesaid organization of awater-t rough and reciprocating grinding wheel, in order to avoidsplashing, is shown in the machine disclosed in my application forLetters Patent, Serial No. 374,943, hereinbefore referred to. Butin thepresent oase I combine such organization with different pivotal andoscillatory devices as hereinbefore set forth, and I also introduce newmeans for retaining the grinding Wheel, A, above the water-level in thetrough, F, when the wheel is in its lateral positions and ready forgrinding. To effect this end, a post or support, d is secured to thebase, D', and is of just such a height that when the hood, c, of thewheel arm, C, rests on the top of the support, d', the wheel, A, will belifted out of the water in the trough, F, andwill be at the properheight to begin grinding. In order to permit the wheel to drop into thewater, a hole, c3, is made in the middle of the hood, c, so that whenthe wheel is at its middle position, over the center of the trough, F,the hole, c3, will come in line with the top of the support, d', andpermit the arm, C, to drop down over said support, d.

For rotating the wheel, A,I employ a train of gears as seen in Fig. 2,which mesh with a pinion, g, on the shaft, B. The first gear, g', in thetrain, is formed integral with a bevel gear, g2, which is mounted on aline 'with the hinge, d', and engaging with this bevel gear, g2, is abevel gear, g3, at right an gies to the aforesaid train of gears, andmounted on a stud, d2,'which projects from the base, D, at right anglesto the shaft, B. The gear g3, is rotated by a crank arm, G, and byreason of the gear, g2, being pivoted in line with the hinge, d, thesaid gear g2 will mesh with .the gear, g3, during all the reciprocationsof the wheel-arm, C. For producing the reciprocation of the arm, C, ahandle, H, is firmly secured to the front end of the wheel-arm, C, bymeans of the lug, h and a bolt and nut, as seen in the drawings, orinany other suitable manner, and a person can readily turn the crank, G,with one hand while he reciprocates the wheel-arm, C, by the handle, H,with the other hand. The extent to which the wheelarm, C, can beelevated by means of the handle, H, is limited by the stop, h', on thesaid Wheel-arm, C, and a corresponding stop, h2, on the wheel frame, D,as seen in Fig. 6, and the handle, H, is also used by the operator tooscillate the grinding wheel, A, laterally, as hereinbefore described.

For holding the knife sections durn g grinding I use two knife clamps,J, J, which stand substantially vertical and each of which is firmlyfixed on, or made integral with a knifeclamp frame, K. This clamp frame,K, is a skeletonized casting, and is made with lugs, k, projectingdownward and hinged at, Z, by means of a horizontal rod, L, and ears, m,m, which are 'conveniently cast on the water trough, F. The'rod, L, isparallel with the wheel shaft B, so that the knife clamp can reciprocatetoward and from the wheel, A. The knife clamps, J, J, are each formedlike a goose neck to receive a knife section, M, and have set screws, j,which are set up against the knife section, Mto hold the same in theclamps, J, J. The knife-clamp frame K, has a ange, lo', extending fromend to end of the frame parallel to the hinge rod, L, and also hasbrackets, 7a2 102, one at each lower corner of the knife clamp frame K,as seen in the drawings, for supporting the knife back. Thus, by meansof said ange, 7c', and brackets, k2, k2, the knife back is guided Whilebeing slid along on the clamp frame and is supported at the properheight above the waterlevel in the trough, F.4

In organizing the machine the seat, k2, as well as the ange, le', iscarefully adjusted to the wheel-arm, C, hinge, d, base, D, and part, Dso that when the wheel A, is raised to the bottom of the V-notch betweentwo knife sections, the wheel, A, will be lifted out of the water in thetrough, F, as hereinbefore set forth.

For reciprocating the knife-clamp, J, a thumb-lever N, is pivoted on thehandle, H, and the free end of said thumb-lever, N, is attached to oneend of a flexible connection, O, which may be an ordinary strong cord,and the flexible connection, O, is guided around a sheave, 0, whichrotates on a stud that is fixed to the wheel-arm, C. The other end ofthe flexible connection, O, is secured to the knife clamp H, J, or frameK, in any suitable manner, as by means of an eye in one of the knifeclamps, as seen in Fig. l. The said sheave, o, is placed on thewheel-arm, C, exactly in line with the pivot, E, or very near to theline of said pivot, as is well shown in Fig. l. When so situated thelength of the liexible connection, O, between the thumb-lever, N, andthe knife-clamp, J, remains practically constant notwithstanding theoscillations of the wheel-arm, C, and the operator can control thereciprocations of the knife clamps, J, J, in all positions of the saidwheel-arm, C. The knife-clamp is thrown away from the grinding-wheel, A,when the pressure 0n the thumblever N, is relaxed, by means of a smallspring, p, coiled on a pin, q, which is fixed on the end of the trough,F. The spring, p, presses against an arm, r, which is fixed .to theknife-clamp frame K, and is perforated with a slot which passes over thepin, q.

s, s, are guides on the knife clamp frame K, to indicate where a knifeshould be fixed in the clamp so as tobe properly ground with the edgesof aknife section at the normal level. The V-notches between the knifesections are placed exactly opposite these guides, s, s, as seen in Fig.4. It will be observed that the grinding wheel A, if swung to the right,will be in position to grind the lefthand edge of a certain knifesection. If swung to the left, it will be in position to grind the righthand edge of the next `Section but one on the left of the section firstground, passing by the intermediate section.

I claiml. In mower knife grinding machines, a device for grinding knivesof different bevels on the same machine, consisting of a knife clamp andits frame, a grinding Wheel journaled in an arm which is swiveled withrespect to the knife clamp frame by a pivot that is perpendicular to theaxis of the grinding wheel, and is distant from the grinding face of'the wheel a greater distance than the diameter of the grinding wheel,and stops on the base for limiting the lateral swing of the arm, soplaced that the chord of the arc through which the grinding face of theWheel IOO IIO

swings is greater than the breadth of aknife section measured parallelto the knife-clamp frame, as described.

2. In a mower knife grinding machine, a knife clamp and its frame, agrinding wheel and its frame, and the said frames swiveled with respectto each other by a pivot, which is positioned at the intersection of theperpendiculars respectively drawn from the line of a beveled edge of oneknife section and from the line of the opposite beveled edge of the nextknife section but one, and from points on said lines which are eachdistant outwardly from the ends of said beveled edges a distance equalto one-half the width of the face of the grinding Wheel, as and for thepurpose described.

3. In a mower knife grinding machine, a water trough, a grinding wheelhorizontally journaled in an arm which is hinged parallel to the axis ofthe grinding Wheel on a wheel frame that is swiveled over the rear endof the water trough by a pivot which is horizontally distant behind thegrinding face of the wheel, a distance greater than the diameter of thegrinding wheel, a knife clamp having horizontal brackets to support aknife back, and the brackets located on the knife clamp, so that theheight of the bottom of the V-notch between two knife-sections above thewater-level of the trough is greater than half the diameter of thegrinding wheel, as described.

4. The combination in a mower knife grinding machine, of a knife clampadapted to hold a knife blade in asubstantially vertical plane, agrinding Wheel, horizontally journaled in a wheel arm which is hingedparallel to the axis of the grinding Wheel on a wheel frame swiveled ona stationary part of the machine bya pivot which is distant horizontallybehind the knife clamp a greater distance than the diameter of thegrinding wheel, a hand lever fixed on the front end of the aforesaidwheel arm for the purpose of oscillating said wheel arm laterally, andalso of reciprocating said wheel arm vertically, and a stop on the Wheelarm and a corresponding stop on the Wheel frame for limiting thevertical movement of the wheel arm, as described.

5. In a mower knife grinding machine, means for holding a knife sectionon the face of the grinding wheel, consisting of a lever pivoted on ahandle attached to the grinding wheel arm, and the free end of the leverconnected with one end of a iexible connection which is guided aroundasheave journaled on the wheel arm, and has its other end attached to theknife-clam p, as described.

6. In a mower knife grinding machine, means for reciprocating a hingedknife-clamp to and from a grinding wheel, which means consist of a leverpivoted on the hand lever attached to the wheel arm, and the free end ofthe lever connected with one end of a flexible connection which isguided around a sheave journaled on the wheel arm, substan tially overthe center of the lateral oscillation of said arm, and has its other endconnected withy the knife clamp, and a spring interposed between theknife clamp and a stationary part of the machine and actuating the knifeclamp in a direction opposite to the pull of the fiexible connection, asdescribed.

7. In a mower knife grinding machine, a wheel armV supporting a grindingwheel and hinged parallel to the axis of the grinding wheel, on a wheelframe which is swiveled on a stationary part of the machine, by a pivotwhich is perpendicular to the axis of the grinding wheel, a projectionon said wheel frame oscillating in a recess in the stationary part,which recess is in form an arc of a circle, and shoulders on saidstationary part which engage the projection on the Wheel frame at itsextreme lateral positions, as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname, in presence of two witnesses, this 8th day of October,

RUFUS DUTTON. Witnesses:

IRVING E. SMITH, BERNARD J. IsECKE.

